1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hydrogen supply device for producing hydrogen due to a reforming reaction of reforming material and supplying the produced hydrogen to a hydrogen consumption device.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, a hydrogen supply device disclosed in JP-A-11-343101 is known. The conventional hydrogen supply device has a structure that off gas of a fuel cell is combusted in a combustion section for transferring the combustion heat of the combustion gas to reforming material. However, pre-heating and evaporation sections, through which the reforming material passes and in which the reforming material is pre-heated and evaporated by the combustion heat transmitted from the combustion section before being supplied to the reforming section, are located at positions far away from a downstream side of the combustion section.
The conventional hydrogen supply device having the structure mentioned above has a drawback that the heat transmitted to the pre-heating and evaporation sections from the combustion section is indirectly transferred to the reforming material, resulting in insufficient heat transfer to the reforming material, and, further, the heat transfer to the reforming material is not effective since the pre-heating and evaporation sections are located far away from the combustion section.
Further, at a time of actuation of the conventional hydrogen supply device, unreacted combustion gas containing harmful components due to incomplete combustion is likely to be exhausted to the outside.
Furthermore, to perform both of a steam vapor reforming (an endothermic reaction) and a partial oxidization reforming (an exothermic reaction) in a reforming section, reforming material containing fuel, water and air, which has been heated and vaporized by a heat exchanger (evaporator), is supplied to the reforming section so that carbonized components produced in a reaction of fuel with oxygen in air is deposited in the heat exchanger, resulting in narrowing and blocking a reforming material flow path of the heat exchanger. In particular, when liquid petroleum fuel is used as the reforming material, the deposition in the heat exchanger is distinctive.